Volunteers with the 17th annual New Toys for Needy Kids campaign celebrated another successful year last week at their new warehouse.

Toy collectors

By Bob Vrbanac, Chronicle Staff

The new warehouse space for the Waterloo Knights of Columbus 17th annual New Toys for Needy Kids campaign couldn’t have come at a better time as the Christmas charity drive handed out a record number of gifts this year.

More than 14,000 toys and gift cards were handed out to 23 local agencies during the annual campaign, started in 1996 by the club’s Chuck Waurechen and dedicated to his memory since his untimely passing in 2001.

But more important than the items collected and distributed by the Waterloo Knights of Columbus — with help from community partners like the Waterloo Fire Rescue Department, the Kitchener Fire Department, the Waterloo Regional Police Services Stuff a Cruiser program — was the growing need in the community.

Martin Hickey, who coordinated this year’s effort, said they added a couple of new agencies to the roster of groups they help through the toy drive. There were also a growing number of families who made a direct appeal for help from the New Toys for Needy Kids campaign, almost doubling last year’s totals.

“We added a few more agencies this year and we have a few more individual requests from families this year,” said Hickey. “We actually doubled our requests from families this year, so we were able to take care of them as well.”

Hickey said family requests come to them from local churches and schools, and said it reflects a growing need in the community.

“It’s doubled from last year and the year before,” he said. “We were definitely seeing a lot more need this year, and the efforts of our community partners like the Stuff a Cruiser campaign helped us fill our warehouse.”

The community response and the help the toy drive received from volunteers and others in the community was particularly strong.

“They really responded,” said Hickey. “The people in this region were just incredible this year — they must have figured it out that there were lots of people who needed stuff.

“We were filling the orders from the agencies as fast as we could get them, and there was a sense of urgency more so this year than any other year.

“We ramped up our process ahead of time and actually started a couple of weeks ahead of time than we usually do, so we were able to meet all of those scenarios.”

They also targeted the needs more directly, so if there was a shortage in one age group or another, Ian Faulds, director of logistics for the campaign, got the word out to the toy collection sites.

“We did that so when consumers went out to the stores we would have told them what we need by sex and by age, and that’s the kind of stuff we got,” said Hickey.

“People would actually stop at the cruisers and say, ‘What do you need?’” said Faulds. “Whatever we put the focus on they would bring something for that, like say a nine-year-old girl, and the community understood our need and responded.

“We were also helped with the cash donations we received and movie theatre tickets we got for the older kids. Even the donation of batteries was appreciated because not one toy goes out of here that isn’t going to work on Christmas morning.”

The collection and distribution of toys and other gifts was made easier this year with a new warehouse space they were able to acquire through a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. It gives them a new permanent home for the toy drive. It also allows them to expand the program to 365 days a year and help supply toys to local hospitals, fire trucks and police cruisers when dealing with children in emergency situations as well as replacement toys for families who might have lost everything in a fire.

“We really have to thank the Ontario Trillium Foundation because without a place to store the toys this year our toy drive could have stopped,” said Hickey. “It gave us a chance to reorganize and reinvest our efforts, and we were a lot better off because of it.”